Beyond
Spiritual Correctness:Appreciating
the DIFFERENCES Among Religions, Paths, and Saints, Part 1

In this book
we consider two tendencies that we inherit simply by virtue of living
in Western culture  spiritual correctness and spiritual
anti-authoritarianism  and we come to understand the liabilities
they represent, relative to our own Spiritual happiness and liberation.
Spiritual correctness.

There is an analog
of "political correctness" that we might call "spiritual correctness".
It goes something like: "all paths to the Divine or ultimate liberation
are equal"; and anyone who suggests otherwise risks seriously offending
or insulting whomever they are speaking with. But just as with "political
correctness", "spiritual correctness" can be carried too far. We begin
to presume that, in order not be discriminatory, we must cease
to be discriminating. Everybody knows that all telescopes are
not created equal! Not all telescopes are equally effective
for determining the nature of stars and other distant phenomena. Just
so, not all Spiritual means  for actually, tangibly linking up with
the Divine  that accompany a given path, way, group, or sect are
equally powerful, reliable, or revelatory. To find the Spiritual means
that will actually most benefit us, amidst the myriad of possibilities
available requires great discrimination.

Best wishes
for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low
stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral, winter solstice holiday,
practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious
persuasion of your choice, but with respect for the religious
persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion
as well as those who choose not to practice a religion at all.

Observers
spoke of the decline of authority, but how could it survive
in a company of equals? Distrust attached to anything that retained
a shadow of authoritativeness 
old people, old ideas, old conceptions of what a leader or a
teacher was meant to do.

The tendency
of spiritual anti-authoritarianism began with the Protestant
Reformation, in righteous reaction to the corruption of the Church
theocracy, eliminating potentially corrupt priests as necessary
mediators between man and God. But this reaction too can be carried
too far. We are all indeed equal in Spiritual rights, that is, in
our Spiritual potential. But that is not the same as saying we are
all equal in our Spiritual Realization. Vive la difference! Thank
God that not everyone is equally Spiritually blind. Because the Spiritually
Sighted are in a position to help the rest of us, and we should not
be too proud to look for and accept that help since what is at stake
is our own happiness.